Seychelles will soon be connected to the rest of the world after the launch of Alcatel submarine fibre-optic cable project to be laid down the Ocean from Msasani Beach, Dar es Salaam, to Seychelles.

Speaking during the launch in Dar es Salaam on Saturday, Seychelles Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Peter Sinon said the fibre-optic system project would help their country link to the world through Tanzania.

Sinon also said the superiority of optical fibres for information transmission was replacing the old technology. “Because we used to access communication via satellite, now we will have optical fibre, which will facilitate extraordinary growth in world-wide communications using broadband internet and other related services,” he said.

He explained that optical fibre technology was very important for high speed communication. “The optical fibre with its low weight and high frequency characteristics and its imperiousness to interference from electromagnetic radiation has become the most viable communication system,” he said.

For his part, Alcatel fibre-optic submarine official Steve Moore said possibilities for fibre optics were very flexible and durable and signals could not be easily distorted. “They also don’t require much power and are efficient. Today, they are used mostly in telecommunications, such as in cable TV and internet,” he explained.

Speaking on environmental impact, Seychelles Principal Secretary for Information Communication Technology (ICT) Benjamin Choppy said they had carried out a study on environmental and social impact assessment and found that there would be no any adverse effects on marine organisms including fish species and other aquatic ecosystems.

Choppy, who is also a Seychelles Cable Systems (SCS) chairman of the board of directors said after looking at possible landing points on the East African coast, the SCS board selected Dar es Salaam as the overall best location in terms of commercial and other possibilities.

“Both Tanzania and Seychelles are members of the Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern African (Retosa) and are in need of a quick and effective system that will speed up connection among tourists and other travellers between these friendly nations, while attracting more business stakeholders from each country through high-tech communication,” he said.

Honorary Consul of the Republic of Seychelles in Tanzania, Maryvonne Pool said the fibre-optic cable would help their people communicate with other people globally to increase business and marketing of their products to people in need at the right time with low cost and on time.

“Seychelles was the only country on the African continent coast not linked to a submarine cable system. I hope that this process will add value to business opportunities because this is the very first fibre-optic submarine cable link for Seychelles and is very much a historic and development milestone for this Island,” she said.

She noted that it was clear that the submarine optical cable system would quicken mobile phone roaming services, thus, making it easier and faster for people to interact and carry out their business and economic endeavours.

Tanzania and Seychelles have been in a forefront war against Somali piracy in the Indian Ocean to make this part of Africa a peaceful area and are in dire need of this fibre-optic cable, which will facilitate communication and fight against piracy.

Fibre-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of light through an optical fibre. The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave, which is modulated to transmit information.

First developed in the 1970s, a fibre-optic communication system has revolutionised the telecommunications industry and has played a major role in the advent of information age.